It provides free legal help to low-income New Yorkers facing foreclosure proceedings, immigration and housing court issues, landlord harassment and eviction – and now the organization is itself receiving assistance, in the form of $50,000 in state funding allocated by Alcántara.

The organization has an office at 5030 Broadway, the same building as Alcántara’s district headquarters, and has been holding pop-up office hours in Alcántara’s office on the second Wednesday of every month.

On Wed., July 26, Alcántara visited Manhattan Legal Services’ main office in Harlem to announce the funding and thank the group’s leadership for providing services in her district, an area she called “one of the last working class neighborhoods in New York City.”

Alcántara said she was aware that many of her constituents had been helped by Manhattan Legal Services.

“I was hoping we could put more money into it because the work you guys have done has been amazing,” she said.

Executive Director Peggy Earisman said the root of the organization’s mission is to fight poverty and seek racial, social and economic justice.

“We do that by representing low-income people in civil matters, those that deal with necessities like housing, immigration, benefits and family law,” she said.

So far in 2017, more than 1,400 people have asked for the organization’s help with housing matters, and the number of Manhattan Legal Services clients has increased 63 percent in the last three years, Earisman said.

“This funding is really critical to our ability to continue to address the needs of the community as those needs keep increasing,” she remarked.

The organization estimated that 85 percent of its clients live on less than $15,000 a year.

Mr. Díaz, a client of Manhattan Legal Services who resides in Northern Manhattan, said the organization has helped him and his brother with issues beyond housing concerns.

“We give our thanks to this organization for having helped us obtain citizenship. This country now counts on two more Latino votes,” said Díaz. “Many immigrants perhaps don’t know about this office but if you look for this office, you will receive the necessary help.”

The organization has seen a 63 percent in clients in the last three years.

Maribel Martínez-Gunter, the group’s Director of Family Law and Immigration, said that the group’s attorneys specialize in many different areas.

“Often, when we look at clients, it’s not just one legal issue that they have, it’s a complexity of legal issues,” she said. “In order for our families to achieve safety, stability, good housing, we need to make sure that we are alert to all of these things.”

Earisman said the effort to keep people in their homes leads to “community cohesion” for neighborhoods such as Washington Heights, Inwood and Harlem.

“These are communities that are particularly under attack,” she said. “They have one of the largest portfolios of continued affordable housing and also have large immigrant populations.”

She said the recent passage of Right to Council legislation by the City Council will greatly benefit the population with which the organization works.

“We do, however, want to make sure in executing that, that there is still space to do some of the building organizing work and representing tenant associations,” added Earisman. “[That] is really the backbone of preserving affordable communities.”